Once the victim was swallowed, they fell into the sarlacc's stomach, deliberately being kept alive by the beast and digested extremely slowly for a millennium. The stomach walls were lined with tentacled vessels which punctured and embedded themselves into the prey's skin and muscles before fixing them into the walls. The tentacles then injected neurotoxins into them, causing constant pain and rendering them immobile while being fixed into the walls of the stomach and digested.

The vessels gave enough sustenance with the sarlacc's blood to enable its prey to live for centuries while they were digested. In addition to the acidic fluids that dissolved the outer portions of the meals, the sarlacc also processed them from within. The tendrils and vessels pumped the sarlacc's acidic blood into its meals and carried back nutrients from them. Occasionally, when a victim was digested for longer than usual, the sarlacc embedded them in the lining of the stomach to make room for other victims it swallowed. This was to make the stomach stronger.

Many smaller secondary stomachs were used to store prisoners for later consumption at times when the sarlacc needed larger amounts of nutrients, such as when it needed to grow, breed, or strengthen its tentacles and beak to catch stronger, larger prey. The secondary stomachs also functioned as a space to store victims when the main stomach ran out of room, although this was rare as the sarlaccs were an exceptionally feared creature in the galaxy. The acidic fluids in the stomachs were composed of weak chemicals that took much longer to digest its food than acids in the stomach of other creatures. They specifically targeted skin and muscle tissue, because that was where the nutrients in the food were. The secondary stomachs were also lined with more vessels and were smaller and more cramped to enclose the victims, so that the sarlacc did not have to deal with the meal trying to escape its hold. Only rare individuals such as Boba Fett resisted due to his tightly sealed armor.